[Way Off Topic] New guy wandering around

Good morning all. Just popping my head in (from across the pond), and wondering if you could let me know if I’m in the right place?

I’ve done Linux for a few years, and run it as a desktop. Most of my personal stuff is e-mail, web, developing (Perl and SQLite at the moment, maybe C again soon), IRC, and writing fiction.

Recently went berzerk and picked up an RPi 4B (8GB RAM) and am trying to find an OS for it. The main qualifications are that it does the basic stuff I need (above) and doesn’t use systemd. Active development is good, and the ability to build/use Perl, vim, and developer tools.

Can I find that here?

Thanks!

Leam

Hello and welcome!

Recently went berzerk and picked up an RPi 4B (8GB RAM) and am trying to find an OS for it. The main qualifications are that it does the basic stuff I need (above) and doesn’t use systemd. Active development is good, and the ability to build/use Perl, vim, and developer tools.

Yes! I’d suggest you get stuck-in and download RISC OS to an SD Card. You have a number of options that include, use of the RaspberryPi foundation’s imaging tool which has RISC OS on it. You could also use the linux imaging tool and find a copy of RISC OS here .

vim unfortunately is in need of some attention, but there are some very good alternatives !Zap and !StrongEd.

Once you’ve installed RISC OS, then take a look at !PackMan, its where you’ll find the GNU development tools.

Also there’s some tutorials and references to documentation here .

Useful applications include:

!ChatCube

!Store – access to !Zap and other programs, some free, some not.

!Ovation Pro, !Impression and !EasiWriter for writing and publishing.

https://www.riscosports.co.uk/index.html

EDIT: Updated to reflect RISC OS Direct isn’t at this time available for Pi4/400. Added some extra document refs.

RISC OS is different to Linux, as it was written for the early ARM processors which means its a fast operating system with a small footprint.

Andrew, thank you! I’ve downloaded the image and will work on it either this evening, unless my wife tries to get me to have a life. Otherwise it’ll be this weekend.

So far I’m enjoying the RPi. Less about the specific gear, more about getting back to what drew me into Linux ages ago. Fiddle and tweak on the console. I’m probably seeing it more fondly now than I did then, but that’s the benefit of time. Besides, I can pop in a different SD card, or boot the old desktop, if I need to.

Addendum I’ve done Solaris/Sparc and even a little HP/UX/RISC, so the concepts shouldn’t be too odd. Whether or not I can understand it is something else entirely. :)

You’re welcome. :) Have fun!

BTW the mouse buttons out of the box, are left to right. Standard left click to select, double click to open. Scroll-wheel depressed (clicked) will give you a Menu.

Should you need it, the Screen / Monitor settings are to be found on the Iconbar (Screen) icon and to set your changes for daily use, you’ll find that in !Configure → Screen

Last time I looked, RISC OS Direct was not compatible with either the Raspberry Pi 4 or the 400. So at the moment, it is something between a useless and damaging option for the RISC OS newcomers it is directed at.

So use the download directly from RISC OS Open Downloads – I recently used the “RISC OS Pi 400” SD card image to bring up a Raspberry Pi 400 and it worked flawlessly.

Thank you, I’ve updated the original post to reflect what you’ve said. :)

@Steffen, I downloaded the “Complete RISC OS Pi SD card image” from that URL. While I prefer a bit of minimalism, it seems easiest to start with the full and look at trimming later.

@Andrew, thank you for the mouse information. Sadly, I’m pretty klutzy and left-click is about all I have down. :)

Regarding vim, the latest official port (which is unfortunately ancient: v5.8.9 ⁰) works on Pi 1, but not on later Pi:s. It’s been suggested it might be a simple fix, but I probably won’t have time to look into it this weekend.

⁰ http://www.sparse.net/vim.html

Almost pure C, probably compiled with an old UnixLib, and equally probably will compile without the likes of SWP if done on a modern build environment.

Addendum I’ve done Solaris/Sparc and even a little HP/UX/RISC, so the concepts shouldn’t be too odd. Whether or not I can understand it is something else entirely. :)

I’m surprised no one else has said it:

RISC OS is not Linux, or a clone. It isn’t HPUX,or Solaris or a vague clone. In fact, it’s plain different.
Oh, yeah, the GUI looks rather like a Win95 in some respects, but then it looked like that when Win3.11 was the big new thing.

You might well enjoy the differentness and this link is sure to give a few clues.
Mouse – try clicking in the scrollbar beyond a bar, and then right-click instead (opposite direction movement with no physical mouse move)

I’ve done Solaris/Sparc and even a little HP/UX/RISC, so the concepts shouldn’t be too odd. Whether or not I can understand it is something else entirely. :)

You’re in good company then as I used the Solaris/Sparc in the computer labs and then AIX. :)

Mouse – try clicking in the scrollbar beyond a bar, and then right-click instead (opposite direction movement with no physical mouse move)

That’s one of the many uses of Adjust (right-click) that I wished other systems had copied it ages ago!

Welcome.

That’s one of the many uses of Adjust (right-click) that I wished other systems had copied it ages ago!

Left-click is called Select, as that’s what it generally does. Right-click is called Adjust, as it generally does a modification of what Select does. For example, clicking scroll-areas or up-down arrows, it does the opposite. If you select something in a filer window, then Adjust-click something else, it adds it to the selection. It will also remove things already added.

It’s worth experimenting with it, as it saves a lot of mouse movement, and opens up more options.

The middle button is called Menu, for the obvious reason.

If your fingers are already programmed for “right-button is Menu”, it is possible to swap right and middle button functions. I can’t remember whether that requires an additional tool.

Pressing F12 will get you to the command line. It responds to Help.

Pressing return on an empty line takes you back to the desktop.

More usefully, pressing control-F12 takes you to a task window, i.e. command line in a window. Annoyingly, it doesn’t have command recall. It does support paste however, so you can put a command in an editor and copy and paste from there.

The built-in editor is Edit. However StrongED or Zap are much better. StrongED is actively supported. Zap support is more – informal.

Well, it is a bit of a stretch to get here from there. I’m not sure if it will last, but I type this on my RPi running RiscOS. Thank you all!